Picoreview: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1: Pretty good, actually.
I’m not really a fan of the whole split it in two thing, but this worked a lot better for me than, say, Deathly Hallows Part 1 did. I felt pretty strongly that DHP1 could have been neatly tucked into 10 minutes at the start of Part 2 and nothing would have been lost, whereas MJP1 was at least a chance for a lot of emotional resonance. It’s the audience’s chance to see just how badly damaged and PSTD everybody, particularly Katniss, is.
And I gotta say I thought it was the strongest performance I’ve ever seen from Jennifer Lawrence, whom I generally like anyway. She broke my heart repeatedly.
So did Philip Seymour Hoffman, but not because of his performance. It was just that every time he came on screen I went “*damn*” again. Although he did have a few rather lovely moments of his own, actually. Funny moments.
I’m quite looking forward to the final act, and I hope there’s a marathon of the whole shebang somewhere when it’s released. :)